Much of the meat bought by consumers is pre-packaged, particularly when for sale in supermarkets. The piece of meat is placed in a tray of plastics materials and covered with a transparent film. Meat is known to exude fluid, particularly blood, and this is considered unsightly in the base of the tray. To absorb this unsightly fluid, a pad is placed at the bottom of the tray and the meat is placed on the pad. Any exudate is absorbed by the pad and thus is not visible as a fluid in the base of the tray.
Meat pads generally consist of an upper release layer on which the meat rests and which allows for easy separation of the meat from the pad, and an absorbent lower layer. Meat pads must be sufficiently absorbent to absorb all the exudate from the meat placed on top thereof so that there is no unsightly pool in the tray, and yet must not leave any type of deposit on the meat. Various examples of meat pads exist in the prior art of varying complexity. Some meat pads are a simple piece of absorbent paper, others are multi-layered typically having a release layer and base layer and absorbent material in the middle. Different products are likely to exude different amounts of liquid, for example a lamb chop will exude a small quantity of liquid only, while a chicken for example, may exude a large amount of liquid. Thus foods need to be packed with a suitable amount of absorbency.
There are problems associated with the use of absorbent materials and these include the tendency for the absorbent material to leave fibres on the meat, or to remain adhered to the meat when it is taken from the tray and cooked. In addition the absorbent pad is often manufactured from a different material to the tray itself, thus making recycling more difficult.